MIGRATION WITHIN SPAIN, LEVEL OF EDUCATION, AND CERVICAL-CANCER SCREENING

Migration has been related to the utilization of preventive care servi ces, We analysed the relation between cervical cancer screening and mi gration within the same country and socioeconomic status in a context in which there is no organized screening, The health survey of Barcelo na (Spain) was the data source, Barcelona, a city in north eastern Spa in, has experienced important migration from the south and other regio ns of Spain. Variables studied were the migrant women's year of arriva l, age at arrival, educational attainment and Pap smear test uptake, M ultivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the correlations among the variables of interest, Just over 30% of the wom en had never had a Pap smear test, Uptake was higher among younger, ed ucated women born either in Barcelona or abroad, After adjusting for a ge, migrant women were at higher risk for not participating in screeni ng tests (odds ratio: 1.23; 1.09-1.39); but after adjusting for educat ional attainment and age, the odds ratio was no longer significant, Th is study shows that migrants within Spain have less access to preventi ve services, such as cervical cancer screening in an opportunistic set ting. However, this association is almost completely explained by soci oeconomic status, Migration could be seen as a social factor that puts people at risk of falling into lower socioeconomic status associated with poor access to screening.